You will start hearing from universities and colleges any time after the 15^th of January. You should start replying to colleges as soon as possible, weighing the pros and cons of each option.

Colleges will generally contact you through E – mail or through your UCAS profile. You can use the ‘Track’ option on your UCAS profile to check the status of your applications and to see if you’ve received any offers, invitations etc. or not.

You might get a variety of responses from colleges. However, a majority of them are either of the ones mentioned below:

Unconditional Offer

You are being offered a place in the course you wish to join by the college as you’ve already met their academic requirements. All you need to do is accept the offer and your seat in the course will be confirmed.

However, if you do not manage to submit your final 12^th class marks along with your application, then it is highly unlikely that you will receive such an offer. These offers are meant for students who can submit their complete academic records.

Most students applying from India do not manage to submit their class 12^th marks by the application deadlines as the results are announced much later.

Conditional Offer

Conditional offers, as the name suggests, are offers of admission but with certain conditions that have to be met. Under most circumstances, these conditions refer to your class 12^th marks.

Colleges impose conditions regarding your marks and grades in the exams and expect you to perform at the same academic level as you have been performing earlier.

Through these conditional offers, you can join a course in a college/university, but only if you meet the required conditions. If you fail to do so, then the admission offer will be withdrawn and you will not be able to join that college.

Unsuccessful/Withdrawn Applications

If your application is termed as ‘unsuccessful’ on UCAS Track, then this means that your application was rejected and that the college you applied to is not offering you admission.

If a university/college offered you admission, but you did not reply on time or could not appear for the interview, then there are many chances that the offer might be ‘Withdrawn’. This basically means that even though the college was offering you an admission offer earlier, it is rejecting your application now.

If your application becomes unsuccessful or is withdrawn, do not worry. The U.K education system and the UCAS website allow you to apply to more colleges through UCAS ‘Extra’ or during the ‘Clearing’ period that begins in the month of July.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU RECEIVE MULTIPLE ADMISSIONS OFFERS? 

If you’re one of those lucky few who have received admission offers from more than one college, you have some important decisions to make.

Out of the total colleges that you applied to, you might have one or two that you would prefer over all others. Do reconsider all your options equally even if one of the admission offers is from one of your ‘Top Priority’ colleges. What is important to understand is that even though you might feel that a particular college is the best for you, it might not be offering you the best ‘package’ or admission offer.

You should re – consider these factors before choosing which admission offer to accept:

Course

Even though you might want to join a particular college more than the others, it is possible that it does not offer your ideal course. It is very important to prioritize your course while choosing to accept an admission offer.

Reputation

Reputation plays a very important role in deciding the value of your degree and in determining the kind of jobs you will get once you graduate. Do not make the mistake of considering the reputation of the college without considering the reputation of your academic department/course. It is very possible that the college you join does not have a great reputation, but is known for the course you wish to pursue.

Financial Aids

Even though it is most likely that the colleges you applied to are the ones you can afford, do take into consideration the kind of financial aids a college is offering you before you choose a college. If a college is offering you a scholarship or some other type of grant, you might want to choose that college over others as your total expenditure might significantly reduce.

Student Life

Consider the student life at the college before you make a decision. Some colleges have very active international student communities which help new students adjust and adapt to the college. You might be more comfortable in a college which has a lot of international students compared to a college which has very few.

Location

The location of the college might play an important role in the decision making process. You might not want to spend so many years of your life in an extremely cold place, or you might not want to live in a small town. Research about the location of the college and find out about its climate, environment, safety etc.

After considering all the above factors, you can choose any of the following responses:

Firm Acceptance

By firm acceptance, you are confirming to the college that you will definitely join their course if you meet the conditions. If the offer is unconditional then accepting it means that you’re ready to pay the fees and enroll yourself for that course.

Firm acceptance responses are meant for your top – priority colleges and the ones you would join any day if given a choice.

Insurance Acceptance

You can also choose to respond positively to a college offer, without accepting it. This is done by choosing that college as your insurance option.

An Insurance acceptance basically means that you are telling the college that you will join their course only if you do not manage to meet the conditions of your ‘Firm Acceptance’ offer.

If you do not manage to meet the conditions of your Firm acceptance offer, then you can join this course provided that you meet the conditions of your Insurance acceptance offer.

This helps you have a back – up option for a college without which you would have no college to join if you failed to meet the requirements of your top – priority College.

Choosing your Firm Acceptance and Insurance Acceptance offers wisely is very important. Generally, it is a good idea to respond to your most preferred college as your firm acceptance. But, while choosing your insurance acceptance, make sure that you choose an offer that has lower grade requirements.

If you choose two colleges with the same grade requirements as your firm and insurance offers, and if you do not manage to meet the conditions of either, then it is very likely that you would have to scramble for seats during the ‘Clearing’ period whereas you could’ve easily gotten into a college with slightly lower grade requirements.

Decline

If you choose to ‘Decline’ an offer, then it basically means that you are telling the college that you are not interested in joining the course they offer and they are free to offer that seat to someone else.

WHAT ARE THE DEADLINES TO RESPOND TO OFFERS? 

The deadlines by which you have to respond to offers depends on the date on which you received the offer. This can be anytime between the 15^th of January and the last days of July.  Follow the table below to know when to respond: